Has anyone knowledge or installed the JVC KD-NXD505?
http://tinyurl.com/bmx3vl


I'm interested in opinions and any tips/tricks/techniques for installation.

 

The link has some pretty good info and sounded like a nice item. But when I did a google, I came across a site that said discontinued...it could be for that site only. However I did go to JVC's website and didn't find it and judging from what was there and the size of the remote, this could be a fairly old piece of equipment.

Sorry couldn't help more, but I don't know if I'd go with it unless it is a great price.

 

The JVC KD-NXD505 replaced the JVC KD-NX5000 as installed by our very own SRT6nTulsa:
http://tinyurl.com/ca3baa
http://tinyurl.com/d38rhk
http://tinyurl.com/bpzb5z

I, too, cannot understand why the JVC website lists the KD-NX5000 but not the newer NXD505.
They do list the owners manual and install guide:
http://books.jvcservice.com/booklist.asp?Model=kdnxd505

 

I'd recommend buying a nav unit separate from your audio receiver. The ones built-in to the receiver don't have to the graphics, portability, and ease of use of the purpose-built standalone GPS units.

Your money would be MUCH better spent on the Garmin Nuvi 765T and a separate receiver:
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-765T-Wi...2736599&sr=8-1

While the JVC unit and other Nuvi's refresh the screen once every one or two seconds, the 7x5 series updates the screen 10 times per second. It also draws 3D buildings (just like Google Earth), enables real 3D camera movement (turn the camera left and right), is compatible with the newly released Lifetime Map Update (One time fee of $120 = 4 map updates per year for the lifetime of the device VS one update per year for $70), and Garmin's high sensitivity GPS receiver. With the Nuvi 765T, you will also receiver the traffic service for no additional charge. You can also take the Nuvi with you, in any car.

I almost forgot another very cool feature: Lane Assist:

 

IRSmurf,
Excellent points. I may go your route.
I've already looked at a KD-AVX44 for the Bluetooth and screen for a backup camera.

 

I bought the KD-NX5000 for my 300m last summer. Lot of flaws in the unit. Great potential, but so many screw-ups. No idea if the 505 fixes some of this. Anyhow...

Hard Drive: Awesome idea, but damn near impossible to use it. Some idiot at JVC decided that nobody would need to load more than a single album or directory from a CD/DVD onto the HD at one time, so you have to sit there manually copying albums over to the HD. Each album takes about a minute, so you're stuck in your car for hours doing this. The only way to avoid it is to rip all your music to huge single directories on DVD, then copy them en masse. Which sucks if you want to keep your music in albums. Don't underestimate how annoying this is. I bought the 5000 mainly for the HD, so I could avoid buying an iPod, but would up getting the iPod almost immediately after realizing the HD sucked. Also, you can record retail CDs, but only in real-time, which is just as insane.

Navigation: It's good, but the interface is awful. Screen is great, plenty big enough and the graphics are better than the Garmin 350. Just tough to find anything because the interface is based on these terrible radial buttons. Nav is also weird with pulling up POIs, as you seem to have to set the unit for the right town to get them. This is a real ***** in cities with boroughs. I was in Ottawa last week trying to find a mall, but the nav just kept telling me it didn't exist, because I had the unit set on Ottawa and not the borough of Nepean. I think. Anyhow, the interface is a mess. I had my Garmin 350 with me as well, and I found the mall with it in seconds. Oh, and no nav map updates. Contact Navteq they send you to JVC. Contact JVC, they send you to Navteq. Nice support.

iPod Interface: Good controls through the HU, but again, the interface sucks because of those radial wheels. I'm a real tech nut, work in computers, always take to gadgety things right away. But I got screwed up for weeks just figuring out the arcane button presses I needed to load up a playlist and start the music.

Anyways, them's a lot of words to say: Avoid this POS. Awesome potential, but it's all wasted. I had to do it again, I'd get a Kenwood KVT-512 with the nav add-on.

 

I have the KD-NX5000, and it's the best radio I've ever had.

 

Glad you like it. I want to, but whenever I start appreciating it, something with the interface comes up again and infuriates me. It's so frustrating, because the KD-NX5000 has everything I want. Just the implementation is a mess. How can you like the HD with the way that it handles loading music? Not trying to be a jerk, I just don't understand how anyone could live with this.

BTW, have you looked into map updates? The map with the unit is 2-3 years out of date and starting to really show its age now. I hope JVC does something here eventually. That's the bottom line for me, really -- why buy a stereo that JVC isn't even properly supporting? Single-DIN nav without a popup screen is a great concept, especially for those of us who don't want big screens getting in the way of controls, but pretty useless if you never update the map.

 

Oh, to further answer the original poster -- no problems with installation, at least on a 300m. You need to find the speed sensor wire to enable the nav, though, so I took it to a pro shop. $60 install. Speed sensor wire is the only possible complication, no idea if that's easy to find on an Xfire (haven't pulled the trigger on one yet, but will very soon). JVC sells an add-on unit for cars without the speed sensor wire or ones where the wire can't be readily tapped. Sits in the wheelwheel or something. Kind of pricey.